Thursday, February 23, 2012

Bright shoes

Newton Gravity (great shoe. Wish it were a little wider in the toe box for my wide feet, but other than that, no complaints)

Newton Momentum (even though I don't often do trail running, it's great when the pavement is wet. Of the 3, this is my hands down favorite pair.)

And Brooks Pure Cadence (new to me, still reviewing them. these are the most built up pair of shoes I currently own. Feels different but so far I like them.)

Those are my running shoes. My walking shoes are Nike FreeRun+2 (have worn out two pair of these and will no doubt wear these two pair out before long. They are soft and very very flexible, but not so long lasting. And silly Nike has discontinued them because they do whenever I love something)

Believe me, the colors are MUCH brighter than in these pictures. The yellow is pretty neon and so is the pink. When I went hiking with a friend she commented that my shoes would make me hard to lose. I love bright colors.

I realize that the color does not affect the performance of a shoe at all, but it does sometimes affect my mental state. How can I not be in a good mood when I slip into a pair of wildly colored shoes and head out the door? My heels are much more sedate, classic and dressy - but running is about fun so I gravitate towards fun colors for my workout shoes.

Before I discovered that I do better in minimal drop shoes I went the stability plus route and very few of those shoes come in bright colors. I guess heavy runners are supposed to want to blend in and not stand out. I quickly discovered that for me (and maybe not for everyone) they didn't make a shoe that could actually provide support for that much force coming down on it. A person of that weight generates a lot of force when they run, however slowly and shufflely. For me I found that the built up shoes did nothing but cause pain. I naturally come down on my mid to forefoot so I switched to something better suited for my gait. I used to wear Vibrams a lot too until the accident but right now I need a bit more support than they can offer. Hope to get back to them soon and maybe get a pair of running sandals. I don't like to be 100% barefoot - ever since I stepped on a slug. A big slug. It was so disgusting that I still want to wash my foot years later. should be noted that I have issues with slugs. Spiders too.

for the people who don't want minimalist style shoes - the shoe folks should make some stability plus in bright colors. People who need support don't automatically want to be wall flowers. Give them some color! Keep the sedate ones too - not everyone wants to stand out, but seriously, make some neon shoes every now and then. Color makes people happy and happy runners are consistent runners.

***********public training log***************

Backed off on the extra cardio dvd yesterday. Just did my P90X. It was shoulder/arms day. Felt good, but I could tell that I was going to be a little sore today.